The Temple Owls defeated the Tulsa Golden Hurricane 20-10 Saturday afternoon to pick-up their 2nd win of the season. Temple used QB Evan Simon's season high 297 passing yards and two key sacks by Diwuan Black to take down Tulsa on cap off Temple's homecoming game.
Temple started the game off very slow on offense. The Owls tried to establish the run game early, but the Tulsa run defense was ready. Temple got the offense rolling after QB Evan Simon connected with Landon Sith for a 58 yard pass to get Temple past midfield for the 1st time all game. Even with the big play, Temple was unable to get the ball in the endzone. Fresh off being named a mid-season All American, Maddux Trujillo hit a 29 yard field goal to get the Owls on the board 3-0.
The Temple defense was lights out in the 1st half. They held Tulsa to under 100 yards of total offense in the first 30 minutes. Temple added a few large plays to set up Peter Clarke for a 3-yard touchdown reception to give the Owls a 10-0 lead.
After another lockdown series for the Owls defense, Temple was able to retake possession of the ball. Evan Simon continued his great 1st half by pushing the ball inside the 1. Terrez Worthy took the ball 1 yard to extend the lead to 17-0. Tulsa was set to run a 2-minute offense until Jamel Johnson picked off Tulsa to give the Owls the ball with 28 seconds left. Temple was unable to take advantage of the turnover, and they headed to halftime up 17-0.
Evan Simon had a great 1st half of football. He was 16-26 with 206 yards, 1 touchdown, and 1 interception. His season high for passing yards this season was 271 against Utah State and he almost broke that in just the 1st half today.
Tulsa made some great halftime adjustments and were able to move the ball very well to begin the 2nd half. After back-to-back penalties on Temple after 3rd and long, Kirk Francis found Anthony Watkins for a 63-yard touchdown reception to get Tulsa on the board. After a quick 3 and out by Temple, Tulsa found themselves once again driving with the ball. After a big 3rd down stop for Temple, Tulsa kicker Seth Morgan added a 46 yard field goal to make this a one possession game.
Temple took back the ball after the field goal and started to look like the offense from the 1st half. Maddux Trujillo added another field goal from 41 yards to push the lead for Temple back to 10 points.
Temple defensive line was able to disrupt Tulsa QB Kirk Francis all game long. However, they were never able to get to him due to Francis great pocket awareness. That changed when Diwuan Black got the strip sack on Francis. After Andreas Keaton was able to recover the ball, Temple added their 3 takeaways of the ball game.
The Temple run game struggled all game long. With Temple only having a couple of runs go for over 10 yards. Thankfully the Owls' passing game was unstoppable. On defense, the Owls dominated the line of scrimmage. Even though he had exceptional pocket awareness, Tulsa QB Kirk Francis was under pressure on every play. Temple's sloppy defense on 3rd and longs continued to give Tulsa multiple opportunities. Even with all the mistakes on defense for Temple, they were able to hold Tulsa to only 10 points.
Tyquon King led the Owls defense with 9 tackles with 6 of them being solo. Diwuan Black led the team with two sacks including a forced fumble.
Tulsa will head home next week when they welcome UTSA. Temple will return next week when they hit the road with a matchup against East Carolina.
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